While there are millions of economic refugees who have migrated to this country, there are also thousands of others who come escaping more traumatic things than just poverty. New York is home to many immigrant students whose families have experienced war and violence and are otherwise displaced from their ancestral ties.

NPR contributor Jeff Lunden now brings us a story from the International High School in Queens, New York. That’s a special college preparatory school for kids with limited English skills that have been in the U.S. for less than four years. It’s in theatre class where kids from disparate regions of the world find commonality in going from trauma to art.